5 hours and 7 houses later, I don't feel any closer to being in a home than before we went out yesterday. Pretty much every house we went to had things that we loved and things that were show stoppers. For example, the first place we went to, had a great floor plan, a nice pool, a fantastic yard, a lovely front porch, but it had 2 pretty big strikes against it. 1 is that it smelled like smoke which gave me a headache within the first 5 minutes of being there. 2 is that is was right next to a trailer park that Tim remembered a couple of his policeman friends had told him before was notorious for drugs and crime. As we were leaving, we noticed a county water employee shutting off the water to the house across the street. Bummer. So, we left to go to the 2nd house on the schedule, and as we pulled up next to it we noticed the neighbor had a sign in their yard that said, "Join me at the Crossing Church" which is our church! When we were in the backyard, we saw who the neighbor was - a great guy who worked with the kids in the kids' ministry at our church for years!! So all the kids were like, "We want to live here!" It was on a beautiful lake - all great things! But then we went inside, and there was just so much work that needed to be done it was depressing. And on and on it went for 7 houses. Things we LOVED and things that were show stoppers. Last example - the last house we went to was really nice. The kitchen was to die for - Kraft Maid cabinets, all new top of the line appliances, a great floor plan, 4 bedroom 3 way split, 3 baths, but the taxes were sky high due to a CDD (which I still don't know exactly what it means except a lot of money out of our pocket!). That one was my fault - I knew the taxes going in, but I really wanted to see the house and it was empty so we didn't have to schedule around anyone and we were already near that neighborhood. But also, as we were leaving, we noticed a big gash in the roof! What was that about? No trees near it - I don't know. But, the Lord knows, so we are trusting Him to reveal His will. There is this one house that Tim absolutely loves and I like a lot, but we felt it was out of our price range. But now that our interest rate is down to 3.75 it actually could possibly work out. I showed the pictures of the place to my dad when we were down there for my mom's birthday and he called us the next day saying, "You need to slap an offer on that thing first thing in the morning!". So we're praying about that. I'll leave you with some pictures of the place:

Looks like a great place. You know we are praying for God's will to be done

Reply

Jill Jacobson

8/20/2011 11:32:43 am

Hey Guys! It's Jill Jacobson. I was reading The Last Lecture by Randy Pausch and he mentions a website for computer programming, animation and design that is designed for teaching kids (Alice.org). I thought your kids, especially Noah, might be interested in checking it out. I wish you guys the best during your house hunt and I believe God will point you to the perfect house when the time is right. I look forward to reading future updates!
Love, Jill

Reply

Hollyhead

8/20/2011 11:53:16 pm

Yes...slap that offer;))

Reply

Linda

8/21/2011 12:26:50 am

Love the house. I can picture many hours of prayer and comtemplation over the lake view, and many hours of pent-up energy release for the children in the pool....God will provide and direct. Be still and know..
God Bless you all.

Tim & Jodie

Tim and Jodie have been married since Nov. 5, 1988. Tim is a Licensed Marriage and Family Therapist and retired city of Tampa Firefighter. Jodie is a happily laid off IBM/AT&T 21 yr veteran employee turned stay-at-home home-schooling mom (say that fast three times!). She works very part-time for a local Christian author and speaker. They have four wonderful children: triplets Nathan, Nicole, and Noah born 11/16/97 and Nicholas born 5/16/99.